Culture of Disbelief and Denial
Lawyers are due to launch a legal challenge today on behalf of four women held at Yarl’s Wood detention centre, claiming their incarceration amounts to “cruel, inhumane and degrading” treatment that breaches their Both Serco (who runs Yarl’s Wood) and The Home Office have issued statements denying that a) any mistreatment took place and b) denying that the women were/ still are on hunger strike.
Meanwhile, The Former Case Officer The UKBA Cardiff Office (The regional Headquarters which includes Bristol) spoke at the Malcolm X centre on Bristol on Tuesday to an audience of over 200 people. Her revelations (if you’ve missed can be read in here Guardian article here but they told us what we already knew or guessed: That most people judging whether people should be granted asylum are Daily Mail reading racists who would “Like to take them (Asylum Seekers) out the back and shoot them”.
Off the back of the revelations, Refugee Voice called for a demo outside the offices in Cardiff. The photo below shows that it was well attended. The only question is whether Lou Perrit was the first person to bring maltreatment by UKBA, or was she just the first (white) person that anyone believed ? Anyway, our comrades from South Wales No Borders, are no doubt pleased that people have finally caught on to why they have picketed the office for several years.
Should Point out that the demonstration was organised by Refugee Voice Wales, the welsh Refugee Council have been very quiet on the subject. (but given their role in the border estate that’s hardly surprising). We are very pleased that people have finally caught on as to why we’ve been picketing. There’s also a video of the protest on our site.
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